Archives for March 2017

Back in 2015, after about a year into my work on this blog, I put together a reading list that encompassed the fundamental books that I thought every Product Manager should read — and I still stand by the list: A Product Management Reading List. But, that was almost two years ago and a lot of good books have crossed my path between then and now. So, without further ado, I give you an updated list of PM reading materials for you to peruse to your hearts’ content (and, as always, there are no referral codes on these books, and only one was provided to me free of charge — noted in its listing).

Note: The Clever PM may make a small commission on purchases made through links on this page.

Many people are aware of the famous quote from Peter Drucker, “What gets measured, gets managed.” But what people don’t often consider is that what’s being measured and managed might actually not matter at all at the end of the day. When we measure things that don’t actually drive us to improve, we’re just acting like a cargo cult — going through the motions and expecting something magical to happen that never will. Instead of just picking some popular or standard metric, we should instead make sure that we understand what direction our measurements are going to give us, and what change they’re going to drive in our behavior or in our products. Only by being thoughtful and deliberate in our choices will we find the right metrics to use and rely on in our choices.

Here are a few things to watch out for and to take into account when considering what metrics we want to put into place…

For a term that’s so well-established in our profession and so widely used, it always surprises me when people abuse and misuse the concept of Minimum Viable Product (or “MVP”). It seems like such a fundamentally simple and clear concept, but often in practice it gets all wrapped up around the axles of internal struggles, until it no longer bears any resemblance to the basics of the concept itself. And when we abuse such a basic concept, bending it to our own purposes rather than using it for the purpose it was conceived for, we wind up watering down the meaning of the term and missing the entire point of engaging in the process of defining and building that MVP in the first place. We create MVPs to confirm a set of hypotheses, to ensure that the problems we’re trying to solve are real and valuable, and to make sure that the technology behind the solution functions as expected. At least, that’s the theory…here are some common missteps that Product Managers make that change their efforts from an actual MVP into something else.